Transcript Nonrenewable Resources - Alabama School of Fine Arts

Minerals, Oil, Natural Gas, and Coal
NONRENEWABLE RESOURCES
Finding, Removing, and Processing
MINERAL RESOURCES
CATEGORIES


Reserves
Economical
Identified
Undiscovered
Other
resources
Not economical

Identified—deposits with a
known location, quantity,
quality, or based on actual
measurements.
Undiscovered—potential
supplies assumed to exist
based on geological
theory
Reserves—identified
resources from which
extraction could occur
profitably
Other—not classified as
reserves
Decreasing cost of extraction

Decreasing certainty
Existence
Known
REMOVING SHALLOW DEPOSITS

Surface mining
(shallow deposits)






Overburden: soil
and rock that is
stripped away
(waste
materials—spoils)
Open-pit
Dredging
Area strip mining
Contour strip
mining
Mountaintop
removal
Open Pit
Dredging
Area Strip
Contour Strip
Mountaintop Removal
SURFACE MINING CONTROL AND RECLAMATION
ACT OF 1977
Requires companies to
restore most surface-mined
land so it can be used for
the same purpose as before
it was mined.
 Taxes applied on mining
companies to restore land
disturbed by surface mining
before the law was passed.
 How do you think this is
actually working?

REMOVING DEEP DEPOSITS

Subsurface mining
Removes coal and metal ores
that are too deep to be
extracted by surface mining.
 Dig deep vertical shafts, blast
tunnels, use machinery to
remove mineral and transport
it to the surface.
 Disturbs less land, but leaves
much of the resource behind.
 Hazards include cave-ins,
explosions, and lung diseases.

No, that’s just Grumpy’s
black lung cough…
Is that a cave-in I
hear?
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
Steps
Mining
exploration, extraction
Processing
transportation, purification,
manufacturing
Use
transportation or transmission
to individual user,
eventual use, and discarding
Environmental Effects
Disturbed land; mining accidents;
health hazards; mine waste
dumping; oil spills and blowouts;
noise;
ugliness; heat
Solid wastes; radioactive material;
air, water, and soil pollution;
noise; safety and health
hazards; ugliness; heat
Noise; ugliness
thermal water pollution;
pollution of air, water, and soil;
solid and radioactive wastes;
safety and health hazards; heat
SUPPLIES OF MINERAL RESOURCES

Depletion time—
how long it takes
to use up a
certain
proportion (80%)
of the reserves of
a mineral at a
given rate of use
Oil, Natural Gas, and Coal
ENERGY RESOURCES
EVALUATING ENERGY RESOURCES
Renewable energy
 Non-renewable
energy
 Future availability
 Net energy yield
 Cost
 Environmental
effects
Nuclear power
6%

Natural
Gas
23%
Hydropower,
geothermal,
Solar, wind
7%
Biomass
12%
Coal
22%
Oil
30%
World
IMPORTANT ENERGY SOURCES
Oil and Natural Gas
Floating oil drilling
platform
Coal
Geothermal Energy
Hot water
storage
Contour
strip mining
Oil storage
Geothermal
power plant
Oil drilling
platform
on legs
Area strip
mining
Pipeline
Oil well
Gas well
Valves
Mined coal
Drilling
tower
Pump
Underground
coal mine
Water is heated
and brought up
as dry steam or
wet steam
Impervious rock
Natural gas
Coal seam
Oil
Water
Hot rock
Water
Magma
Pipeline
Water
penetrates
down
through
the
rock
NORTH AMERICAN ENERGY SOURCES
ALASKA
Trans Alaska
oil pipeline
Prudhoe Bay
Beaufort
Sea
Arctic
Ocean
Coal
Gas
Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge
Oil
Prince
William Sound
Gulf of
Alaska
High potential
areas
Valdez
CANADA
Pacific
Ocean
UNITED STATES
Grand
Banks
Atlantic
Ocean
MEXICO
HISTORY OF ENERGY CONSUMPTION
COAL

Rock formed in Earth with several stages
Buried remains of Carboniferous period subjected to
heat and pressure
 Mostly carbon with some water
 Sulfur is gradually incorporated into the coal as it forms
 Three types

 Lignite
- brown coal, low heat and sulfur content, limited
supplies
 Bituminous - soft coal, most commonly used, high heat content,
large supplies, high sulfur
 Anthracite - hard coal, high heat content, takes longest to form,
expensive, fewer supplies, low sulfur
FORMATION OF COAL
HOW IS COAL USED?

25% of world’s commercial energy




Generating Electricity





used to generate 39% of world’s electricity and 75% of world’s steel
China is world’s largest consumer (76% of their energy)
Coal supplies 57% of the U.S. electricity
Coal is ground into a fine powder (increase surface area) and burned at a high
temperature
Steel pipes filled with water run through the fire producing high pressure steam
The steam is used to turn a turbine
The turbine spins a generator which produces electricity
Conversion






Coal liquefaction - conv. to methanol
Coal gasification - conv. to synthetic natural
gas or hydrogen gas
lower air pollution, BUT
low energy yield because energy is lost in conversion
would increase use of coal because 30-40% of energy is lost in conversion
more mining
TRADE-OFFS OF COAL USE

Advantages





Ample supplies (225-900
yrs.)
High net energy yield
Low cost (with subsidies)
Mining and combustion
technology well-developed
Air pollution can be
reduced with improved
technology

Disadvantages






Very high environmental
impact
Severe land disturbance, air
pollution, and water pollution
High land use
Severe threat to human
health
High CO2 emissions when
burned
Releases radioactive
particles and toxic mercury
into air
NATURAL GAS




Natural Gas is the third
most important fuel
It is mixture of 50-90%
methane and small
amounts of ethane,
propane, butane, and
hydrogen sulfide.
Conventional N.G. lies on
top of crude oil
Unconventional N.G. lies
on top of coal, dissolved in
water, underground sands;
unconventional sources
have promise in future
because of abundance.
Who Has It?
TRADE-OFFS OF NATURAL GAS USE

Advantages








abundant, cleaner burning
(50% CO2 of coal)
cheaper than oil
reserves should last 80200 years at current levels
can be transported easily
over land by pipeline
high net energy yield
extraction doesn’t damage
the environment so much
as coal or uranium ore
easy to process
can be used to power
vehicles

Disadvantages




Some toxic sulfur gases are
produced
must be converted to liquid
form before transport
leakage into air can increase
global warming
OVERALL: considered to be
the best fuel in our
conversion to renewable
energy sources
OIL

Three sources



Crude from underground deposits--produced by
the decomposition of deeply buried organic
material from plants and animals under high
temperatures and pressures over millions of
years. Natural gas and crude oil are found
together.
Oil shale--fine grained rock that contains a
mixture of hydrocarbon compounds called
kerogen. Once brought to the surface, the shale
can be crushed and heated, vaporizing the
kerogen. The kerogen vapor is then condensed
to make shale oil.
Tar sands--mixture of clay, sand, water, and
bitumen (a high sulfur oil). The bitumen is
removed by heating the sand until the bitumen
softens and floats to the surface. Then it is
refined into traditional crude oil.
CRUDE OIL RECOVERY
Primary Oil Recovery

drilling a well and pumping out oil that flows by gravity
into the well
Secondary Oil Recovery

injection of water into nearby wells to force the heavy oil
into the well
Tertiary Oil Recovery

injection of steam or CO2 into wells to force oil out
Average yields are only 30-50% at which time it
becomes too expensive to extract more
REFINING

Crude oil is a mixture of
many different hydrocarbons that can be
separated with distillation

From heaviest to lightest:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
asphalt
Wax
Naptha
diesel oil
heating oil
jet fuel
Gasoline
cooking gases (propane,
butane)
WHAT IS OPEC?

Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries—have 78% of the world’s
estimated crude oil reserves.



Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq,
Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and
Venezuela.
Controls prices of gas—sets production
targets for its member nations, when
targets are reduced, oil prices increase.
Political stability is a key factor for
United States and other oil-dependent
countries.
PRODUCTION OF CO2
The Downside of All Fossil Fuel Use